German and Finnish radio stations announced plans to put on air a programme on the recitation of the holy Quran and its translation, along with interpretation in an attempt to increase people’s knowledge of Islam.
The program will be aired in weekly sessions, IslamOnline reported.
“It’s nice to hear my translation be read aloud,” Professor Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, who translated the Qur’an into Finnish, told Yle’s Radio 1 channel.
“It is important that the Qur’an is read in its entirety, and not just select items that show that Islam is bad and violent or good and beautiful. All of the text material is served up for the listener to assess,” he added.
The reading will be divided into 60 half-hour segments followed by discussions and interpretations of the verses by a senior Muslim cleric.
“The program is an important step in understanding one another. It is an attempt to tell the story of the Qur’an and what it contains,” Imam Anas Hajjar told Yle Radio.
It is worth mentioning that there are between 40,000 to 45,000 Muslims among Finland’s 5.2 million populations.
In Germany, Radio Deutschland in March begins a new series for recitation of the Holy Qur’an under the title, “Qur’an declares”. The program will be broadcasted from Friday, March 6 at 9:55 with passages from the holy Qur’an on weekly basis, Germany radio director Willi Steul told Süddeutsche Zeitung.
It is noteworthy that Germany has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France.
Germany is believed to be home to approximately 4 million Muslims, including 220,000 in Berlin alone and Turks represent an estimated two thirds of the Muslim minority.